Taking care of police business

In January, Premier Steve Bracks announced that police would receive an emergency injection of $10 million for two frontline operations - lowering the road toll and the Purana taskforce investigation of Melbourne's underworld killings. Mr Bracks also pointed out Victoria's crime rate was an impressive 22 per cent below the national average. Just last year the state's crime rate fell 7 per cent.

But while Melbourne may be relatively safe, the unsolved gangland shootings have placed its police force under pressure. The death of Lewis Moran in a Brunswick club on Wednesday night was the 24th underworld murder in the past six years and the 12th in a feud being investigated by the taskforce. The deaths are an evil in themselves but they also pose an obvious threat to other civilians in the vicinity of the shootings, a fact acknowledged by Police Minister Andre Haermeyer, who said last week that bystanders may well "come to grief" if the killings continue. Mr Haermeyer's comments give the impression that the Police Minister is little more than an observer of the drama unfolding around him. But it is vital at such a time that the public have confidence both in the integrity of the police and the efficacy of their minister. The Purana taskforce is carrying out its work while another taskforce - Ceja - is investigating corruption in the drug squad. That investigation has so far resulted in serious drug charges against 13 police and the suspension of another officer who has not been charged.

The work of the Ceja taskforce has prompted calls for a royal commission. The Police Ombudsman has also asked the Government for new powers to fight corruption, including the ability to start investigations, search homes and compel people to answer questions that might incriminate them. Such calls recognise that mechanisms outside the force are sometimes needed to investigate allegations of corruption within the force.

This newspaper believes the best course of action is to establish a crime commission, similar to that in NSW, with coercive powers to compel witnesses and documents and to imprison those who refuse to testify. In the recent past, Mr Haermeyer has been damaged by the inappropriate use of police files by officers, an issue that came to light after his own misuse in Parliament of information from the police file of Liberal candidate Matthew Guy. He now needs to demonstrate that he recognises the gravity of the challenge facing the Victoria Police, which must adopt more decisive means of investigating corruption in its ranks.